GOURMET GUIDE
GOURMET GUIDE downstairs, where Tracey Emin’s favorite toasted truffle sandwich, filled with jamón ibérico and Ermesenda cheese, is a must-try. Not content with reopening Joe Allen, Russell Norman has launched Brutto (msha.ke/brutto/), in Smithfield, with a menu of Tuscan classics, pappardelle with rabbit among them. Try the penne with vodka and tomato, borrowed from Florence’s Alla Vecchia Bettola, but actually an improvement on the original. Fashionistas, meanwhile, will flock to Il Borro (ilborrotuscanbistro.co.uk), on Berkeley Street, named after the Ferragamo family’s idyllic Tuscan estate. As at Brutto, gigantic bistecca alla fiorentina looms large on the menu, as well as hand-made spaghetti dressed with organic tomatoes and olive oil from the estate. THE MAÎTRE D’ Jesus Adorno HOW HAS SERVICE IN LONDON RESTAURANTS CHANGED OVER THE YEARS? When I started, we had a proper guéridon, a trolley, for steak Diane, steak tartare, crèpes Suzette—diners expected it. Now, most restaurants plate in the kitchen—it’s faster, with less fuss. A TASTE OF LONDON Clockwise from right: Escargots at Buvette; KOL’s lamb leg tostada; New Nordic cuisine from Sven-Hanson Britt’s Oxeye. The thoroughly exuberant, 295-cover Ave Mario (bigmammagroup.com), in Covent Garden, also claims Tuscan heritage—“inspired by an idyllic day in Florence” —but its over-thetop menu, like those at sister restaurants Gloria and Circolo Popolare, comes from all over Italy. Enjoy the ride. High-profile chefs from around the world continue to make a splash by the Thames: Argentinian chef Fernando Trocca has opened an outpost of his famous Buenos Aires restaurant Sucre (sucrerestaurant.com) in Soho, installing a “parrilla” grill and a wood-fired oven, hot on the heels of fellow Latin American chef Santiago Lastra, whose Mexican fusion menu at KOL (kolrestaurant. com), in Marylebone, has already won awards. Two more familiar names to London diners are also opening new outlets in the capital. Jason Atherton’s Mediterranean terrace-inspired Café Biltmore (lxrhotels3.hilton.com), in the Mayfair hotel of the same name, offers wood-fired pizza and robata-grilled fish, while the Galvin brothers’ Galvin Bar & Grill (galvinrestaurants. com), housed in a handsome old dining room on Russell Square, features a classic grillroom menu laced with their distinctively French savoir-faire. Swedish chef and TV star Niklas Ekstedt has opened Ekstedt at the Yard (ekstedtattheyard. com) in the new Great Scotland Yard Hotel, © BUVETTE WHERE IS THE BEST PLACE FOR GREAT SERVICE IN LONDON? I really like Clarke’s, on Kensington Church Street. Sally Clarke is a delightful chef, I love her dishes, and the service is perfect. AND HOW IS CHARLIE’S, YOUR NEW RESTAURANT? Actually, we’ve brought back the trolleys. We slice beef Wellington at the table, for example. It’s a bit of theater, and our diners appreciate it. WHAT’S ON THE TROLLEY TODAY? Salmon en croûte: well, it’s Friday! Legendary front-of-house Jesus Adorno was maître d’ at Le Caprice for many years before moving recently to Charlie’s, at Brown’s Hotel. roccofortehotels.com 68 NetJets
© OXEYE HDG PHOTOGRAPHY I N T H E B O R O U G H S Hackney A short walk along the Regent’s Canal from the lively bars, cafés, and restaurants of Broadway Market, Café Cecilia (cafececilia.com) is ex-River Café and St. John chef Max Rocha’s first solo venture. His breakfast menu features kippers with brown butter and capers and—betraying his Irish heritage—Guinness bread with boiled eggs and Coolea cheese. Lunches are more Franco-Italian in inspiration: Expect porchetta and mustard baps, mussels with cider and pain grillé, or salmon with zucchini fritti and beurre blanc. Bermondsey Chef Robin Gill and wife and business partner Sarah first made their names at The Dairy, in Clapham, where their imaginative, impeccably sourced and cooked menus won them many plaudits. Now ensconced at Bermondsey Larder (bermondseylarder.com), just south of Tower Bridge, with—among others— Pizarro and Café Murano as neighbors, the emphasis is very much unaltered. Gill’s celebrated aged raw beef with bone marrow and parmesan is still on the menu, as is the potato and rosemary sourdough with chicken fat butter. Brixton Nigerian-born Joké Bakare cut her culinary teeth hosting supper clubs, persuading her to enter—and win—the annual Brixton Kitchen competition. In August last year, she opened Chishuru (chishuru.com) in Brixton’s bustling Market Row, showcasing her native West African cuisine (Filipino restaurant Sarap, a previous winner, is a neighbor, as is the original Franco Manca). Expect lashings of “shito” (spicy Ghanaian chili-and-shrimp paste), as well as goat “ayamase” (a Nigerian stew) and “ekuru” (Yoruba stewed beans). Peckham A South London hotspot for great dining, Peckham is home to Thai favourite The Begging Bowl, modern bistro Levan and the South African-accented Kudu, which now has a sister restaurant just south of the borough. Kudu Grill (kuducollective. com) majors in fiery “braai” (open grill) cooking: a whole black bream, for instance with “zhug” (Yemeni hot sauce) butter roti, or T-bone with beer-pickled onions and treacle bordelaise, washed down with an all-South African wine list. Haggerston Just west of Hackney, Haggerston is now a gastronomic destination in its own right, especially its railway arches, which house both chef Sebastian Myers’s Planque (planque.co.uk)—offering modern French food and a well-stocked cellar—and The Sea, The Sea (theseathesea.net), a fishmonger-cum-chef’s table that promotes the idea of aging fish before cooking it. As demonstrated by Portuguese chef Leandro Carreira, the results are persuasive: bag one of the 12 seats and feast on skate crackling and savory toffee, and razor clams, roasted yoghurt and onions. Shoreditch Five years ago, Edson and Natalie Diaz-Fuentes were forced to close Santo Remedio, their much-praised Mexican restaurant in Shoreditch, after a disagreement with the landlord. They decamped to London Bridge, to a bigger site and great reviews—now they are back. Santo Remedio Café (santoremedio. co.uk) is the couple’s “ode to the bustling cafés of Mexico City,” and the food is, characteristically, as joyous and colorful as the décor. Feast on pork belly tacos with chicharrón and tomatillo salsa, with a margarita or two on the side. Crouch End There is a dream team behind bistro de quartier Les Deux Garçons (les2garconsbistro.com) in Crouch End: Robert Reid, formerly head chef at Marco Pierre White’s three Michelin-starred The Oak Room, and Jean-Christophe Slowik, ex-patron of L’Absinthe in Primrose Hill. The menu is a Francophile’s dream, too— coquilles Saint-Jacques with smoked bacon and herb butter, perhaps, or soupe à l’oignon gratinée; then confit de canard with Puy lentils, and baba au rhum to finish. Clerkenwell The new Sessions Art Club (sessionsartsclub.com) restaurant, on the lofty fourth floor of a Clerkenwell Green townhouse, boasts food as stylish and relaxed as its surroundings. Ex-Polpetto chef Florence Knight’s menu is chic but unfussy—grilled mackerel with datterini tomatoes and capers, clams with riesling and crème fraîche, pork belly with fennel and orange. NetJets 69
